Community Service Learning

This innovative new juvenile justice approach applies principles of school-based service learning, balanced and restorative justice, and law-related education to update and improve traditional, court-ordered, mandatory community service. It is published in the Spring 2006 issue of the quarterly online newsletter of the Constitutional Rights Foundation.

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Restorative Justice Research

The Jerry Lee Program on Randomized Controlled Experiments in Restorative Justice is comparing restorative conference outcomes, for both victims and offenders, to those of conventional practices in numerous criminal cases in Australia and the United Kingdom. Results to date show that restorative justice produces substantial and statistically significant benefits for victims of crime.

++++++++++Family Group Decision-Making

The American Humane Association’s National Center on Family Group Decision Making has added a number of new resources online since the last time I visited the web site. Here are some representative samples:

Family Group Conferencing: Responses to the Most Commonly Asked Questions

Family Group Conferencing: A Message from the Bench

Family Group Conferencing: A Realistic Option for Juvenile Justice?

FGDM Training Schedule for 2006

And, from Casey Family Programs, another application of FGDM, a description of a Texas family-centered approach to child welfare.

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Restorative Justice In Texas: Past, Present & Future

Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, has written a report that highlights several existing successful restorative justice programs in Texas and offers recommendations based on effective restorative practices in other jurisdictions. The report is available to read/download at the organization’s web site (28 pages. Pdf file). Click on the link above.

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Restorative Community Service

Teens on probation in Doyletown, Pennsylvania perform community service by interacting with elderly nursing home residents; playing bingo, weeding a garden, and bowling. Through the Community Service Foundation, troubled kids are engaged in activities they can be proud of. They get back as well as give, part of the restorative justice philosophy.

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Tools for Permanency – Family Group Decision Making

Tool #2 from the National Resource Center for Foster Care & Permanency Planning offers information about this family-focused, culturally sensitive approach to developing safety and permanency plans for families with children who are in foster care or at risk of entering foster care due to parental abuse or neglect.  Other tools available: Concurrent Permanency Planning and Child Welfare Mediation.

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  Restorative Practices in a Foster Care Group Home

The Restorative Practices eForum reports on the CSF foster girls’ group home in Quakertown, Penn. CSF (Community Service Foundation) group homes are run according to the tenets of restorative practices. A CSF group home avoids being permissive or punitive. It is rather, a restorative atmosphere – a highly structured, safe environment for people to express and exchange intense emotion. Youth are court-ordered to enter the CSF Residential Program, but are fully informed about how the program works and are given a choice whether to make a commitment to it.

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